From scratch (Shou/Aiko/Open)

When it comes to the contest of speed, it was pretty much within Shou's forté. She doesn't have a good spiritual sense and just terrible at fights but has the instincts and perception to make up for it. Afterall, she's gotta make a run for it if things look bad.

And she wasn't about to let her sis best her in this one yet.

When Aiko came in for a right flank, she would catch Aiko's elbow and instead of stopping it since she'd lose in the battle of strength, she used it as a lift to pick herself up and above in the air, then used whatever momentum that's left behind the force of the elbow strike to push herself away to put a good distance between them and eventually landed on the ground with grace.

Winking with a big smile on her face, she would follow up with a pretty.. well, smug response.

"Sis, you gotta be quicker than that to catch me off-guard. Hehehe~"

Instead of making the next move, she would gesture to Aiko to come and try again, pretty much challenging her now that she's starting to get a little excited herself too.

Noticing the way that Shou flowed throughout their exchange gave Aiko hope that her "lil sis" was beginning to pick up on things swiftly. So, with a smirk, Aiko flapped her wings as the other blood-eyed girl motioned for her to come.

"If you insist."

And with that, Aiko clapped her hands and had ten spikes of blood begin to forge behind her. These wouldn't cause massive damage but would be annoying to be slammed against as they would store her energy and explode in small eruptions of pressure. As she sent them all flying at swift speeds, she would jump back and take flight above Shou to then deliver a dropkick to her before jolting back to her right flank.

"Can you still keep up? The baddies may use multiple attacks at once after all~."

Regardless of whether these attacks were successful or not, Aiko would crack them and then adjust as she continued to press Shou a bit harder.

Fuh! Looks like her challenge is getting answered!

She can make-do with a straight one-on-one attack but multiple? Looks like she's gotta pull off some risky move. Just like how she did it before, Shou didn't hesitate to take a daring step forward and run towards the spike as they're being launched towards her to get a headstart to deal with them first.

With her speed, she would manage to catch two of the blood spikes with her hands and promptly sold them off on contact, and only dodge a few more before she had to keep a standstill to raise her arms to take both Aiko's dropkick and the remaining blood spikes head-on. The spikes hurts like hell as they slammed right against her body with power and her sis's strength behind the dropkick combined was enough to force her to kneel down in pain. With that right flank, she couldn't defend it at this point and could only take it before dropping into the ground.

Ah.. combat really ain't her thing.

Giving her right side a good rub as she lightly coughed, even with the pain, she still managed to joke around.

"Man.. I didn't know baddies would rough up a delicate young lady like myself too.."

Ouch. Pain strikes when she wanted to laugh. Well, at least she's still in the mood for it. But now here's a question: where did the blood spikes she sold earlier ago?

Touching the ground, stone walls would erupt from all 4 corners with gaps inbetween around Aiko, effectively encasing her inside even if its temporary - that's what she had bought with them.

"You know when I said I don't really care if I broke my own arms and legs? I mean it."

Shou knows the "price" she has to pay to use her powers and.. injury is one of the price she can use. Now that she's set it up, she wasn't gonna waste it. Reaching out to both of her own index and middle finger on her left hand, she would bent them at an unnatural angle and snapped them without hesitation. Not enough to cripple it but certainly will be awhile before she can use them again.

Fucking hell. Its gonna take awhile before they heal up.

With that, what's left was to send off a blast of fireball to slip through one of the gaps she's left to detonate it off into an explosion and hopefully with the encasing, she could contain it enough to do some substantial burns.

Aiko was undoubtedly a challenging opponent for the woman, so she chuckled when she was called a "Baddie."

"Better watch out; the baddies are coming to get ya~."

Now playing up to her weird goth image, Aiko gave an odd smirk as she squeezed both her hands outward as if she were some ghost or vampire.

Of course, it wouldn't be that way for long. Aiko was surprised when she suddenly found herself surrounded by four walls. She figured Shou didn't have enough juice in the tank for something like this. So, when she heard Shou was willing to injure herself for this, she braced for impact as Aiko's body barely had time to react before the explosion threw her out of the walls.

As the smoke cleared, Aiko's dress was burned and scratched, the woman's arms were bleeding, and she seemed cut up in a few places but was far from out of the fight. Feeling a burning sensation around her, Aiko assessed the situation and just zipped straight to Shou with a concerned expression.

"ALRIGHT: you got me. But HOLY SHIT, ARE YOU OKAY!?"

Breaking out of combat mode momentarily, Aiko hadn't meant to push Shou THIS far; even if she was impressed, she managed to get her.

"Sis, do I need to take you to a hospital!?"

Its her first time feeling this excited. Maybe she was a little too used at being in her comfort zone, a little stimulation like this was just.. fun. She felt like a kid who just discovered the fun in video games for the first time.

Man.. she was exhausted. Now that the adrenaline had wore off, the pain in her snapped fingers was starting to set in. Instead of leaving it as is, she snapped it back in place as quickly as she could, albeit they would be pretty unusable until they get treated.

Seeing Aiko zoom over to her side with concern, Shou kept her smile and gave her a thumbs up to assure that she was all good.

"I couldn't be any better.. I may be delicate but I am as strong as a thousand horses.."

Even when Shou said those words, even she can tell that exhaustion was setting in; physically and in reiryoku. Her vision was fading, panting and sweating heaps. She wasn't used to using her powers that much, moving from a typical lifestyle use to combat was akin to someone who just started jogging going for a 100km run on their first day.

Her body didn't like it.

"But yeah.. maybe even horses.. need a break.."

Trying to keep up her usual self even in her state, she was eventually knocked out cold, laying flat on the ground.

Everything hurts, man.

Fuck, that wasn't good. Shou fainted. So all Aiko could mutter out in response was this:

"Shit."

After uttering that out, the woman's mind raced with panic and fear at the sight of Shou's unconscious body. Questions swirled within her: Was she dead? How serious was the injury? But there was no time to waste in shock. Aiko's determination took hold, propelling her into action.

Swiftly, she kneeled beside Shou as Aiko's heart pounded with anxiety, a constant reminder of the urgency of the situation. Without hesitation, she brought her own blood to bear, transfusing it into Shou's body. It seeped through her skin, a lifeline to amplify her energy, a desperate attempt to bring her back from the brink.

"C'mon Shou, wake up."

Aiko spoke aloud as her voice laced with a mix of desperation and hope. She willed every ounce of her being into reviving her newfound sister, praying for a response, a flicker of consciousness that would break the suffocating silence. Time seemed to linger forever, making the air thick and heavy with dread. Aiko's heart thumped against her ribcage as every passing second made worry pierce deeper into her heart, and she hoped her attempts to heal Shou would wake her up.

Ah shit..

Her consciousness was still barely hanging on but the body's pretty much given up, feeling as if she was just floating on top of nothing. Arms and legs refused to listen to her to move and eyes didn't want to open. A case of overexhaustion and a reminder that she sometimes forget that she's still.. well, a human. Super, yes but even there are limits to it and she went past out of her comfort zone.

Shou dwelled in her thoughts, for god knows how long? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Maybe she's dead. Nah, that couldn't be it, right? Until she came to a.. uh.. rude awakening.

Gasp.

Taking a deep breath, Shou suddenly found herself awake in reality again. Her eyes were slightly open again and the first person on sight was Aiko. Without missing a beat, she would suddenly speak up.

"A goddess.. Heaven.."

Lightly smiling and giggling a bit, she hasn't really regained a lot of her strength back. Still, the good news for her is she could at least feel her physical body again. That feeling of energizing up.. Ah.. she had a gist of what made her wake up from exhaustion. The sweating had stopped but her heart was still beating fast, trying to get blood pumping fast so she can naturally recover faster.

While she can't move much other than a couple of fingers, Shou was still calmer than expected despite all that, trying to assure her sis that everything is all good.

"Sorry for worrying you."

With a smile on her face, she would assume that Aiko might be interested to know what happened so she continued muttering on slowly to conserve her energy.

"I did a lot more than what my body can handle.. so it just blacked out.. It didn't like what I was doing."

PHEW

There are no words in the English dictionary to describe the immense relief that oozed through Aiko's body after seeing Shou come back to life. That's all Aiko cared about. Shou started apologizing and taking fault for everything, but Aiko shook her head and spoke up as her eyes softened.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you are ok."

Her voice was warm and rich with affection and care, as she didn't want to give the wrong impression that she was upset with Shou. It was a delicate matter in her mind and Aiko.

"But I think we are done with training for the day. Your body has taken more than a body and I think we need to go to a hospital, don't you agree?"